i'd say this is the real reason why the nz gov about to make a sad attempt to stop people downloading things – nz is a test area for internet censorship – if it works here they will try it in usa, but I’m confident this will backfire on them in ways they don’t even begin to understand, and we will be able to work around anything they come up with, so no worries
wow - a filtering system “worth $150 000” (should pay for 2 half trained geeks with a computer) – and they can’t even filter sp@ m with one “worth” 20 million…. is our country turning into a scenic wonderland?
July 19, 2009
New Zealand Press Association
A euthanasia activist is questioning the Government's motives behind blocking access to objectionable websites.
The new Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System , worth $150,000, will be provided free to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in a couple of months.
The Government said 7000 objectionable sites would be blocked to fight child sex abuse.
It would not release the list of sites because of fears that would encourage people to visit them, IT minister Steven Joyce said.
Australia recently took the same step, but the website www.wikileaks.org published the list, and a Queensland dentist, animal carer and school canteen consultant found themselves on it.
Australian Euthanasia activist Dr Philip Nitschke, who is visiting the country this week, said a legitimate euthanasia site had also been included in the list.
Mr Joyce's excuse that to release the list would increase traffic to the sites was "shallow and implausible", Dr Nitschke said.
"The simple fact is that the NZ Government, like the Australian Government, does not want the public to know what material they have taken the liberty to consider `objectionable'."
He called on wikileaks.org to immediately leak New Zealand's secret blacklist so website owners would know where they stood.
The software, called Whitebox, will reroute all site requests to government-owned servers.
It compares users' site requests with a list of banned links. If a match is found, the request is denied.
It will not cover email, file sharing or borderline material.
Internal Affairs censorship compliance head Steve O'Brien said the blacklist would be personally reviewed by staff each month and would be restricted to paedophilic content only.
The scheme was voluntary for internet service providers, but Telecom, TelstraClear and Vodafone, which represented more than 93 percent of the market, had expressed interest in adopting it.
It would not be used for law enforcement purposes, Internal Affairs secretary Keith Manch said earlier this week.
